Feathers
by Rayvenwitch
Summary: Diaval doesn't approve of Phillip, and Aurora wonders why. (Diaval/Aurora)


"I don't like him."

"You don't have to like him, I do." Aurora said without looking at the man sitting on the windowsill. She was busying herself with the task of choosing fabric to be draped across the great hall for the reception ceremony. "But what exactly is it that you don't like about Phillip?"

Diaval ran his fingers through his hair and tapped the toe of his boot against the tiled floor. "He's dull." He said at last.

"Your only complaint is that he's dull?" Aurora turned and stared at him.

Diaval rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "He's dull, I don't know what else to say." He shot back. "I just... I pictured you with someone more... outgoing."

"Like who?" Aurora demanded. "If you haven't realized, my pool of potential suitors is very narrow. I've only ever had a conversation with Phillip and you."

Diaval shrugged again.

Aurora's eyebrow rose.

"I didn't say anything!" Diaval groaned. "You're impossible."

"I didn't say anything, Diaval." Aurora smiled at him. "But now I'm curious-"

"You're always curious!" Diaval complained, his shoulders slumping. "I should... probably... go." He started to turn on the windowsill.

"Oh no you don't!" Aurora stood from the bench in front of her vanity and rushed over to him, catching hold of his sheet-sleeve. "Diaval!"

He glanced back at her before turning to face her, his hands coming to rest on her waist. "What is it?"

Aurora frowned at him. "You're teasing me!" She said with a stomp of her foot.

Diaval's eyes widened. "Now would I do that?" He said in mock horror. "Perish the thought from your beautiful head, my dear."

"Diaval!"

"Alright, so I might get a little bit of enjoyment out of teasing you." Diaval winked.

Aurora let out a frustrated sigh. "You got me to lose track of what I was trying to ask you." She frowned at him. "Why don't you like Phillip?"

Diaval stared at her for a long moment before he bent his head, his lips brushing against the corner of her mouth. "Because you were always mine, from the beginning. I don't like him because he's taking you away from me."

Aurora's eyes widened. "Oh." She blinked a few times before looking down, "I... I don't..."

"Don't say anything, love." Diaval said with a shrug. "You are a princess, I'm just a silly old bird, in love with the idea of love."

"You aren't silly." Aurora whispered. "And the idea of love is all I'm in love with..."

"Phillip is a prince."

"Phillip is sweet, and he's handsome, but he doesn't know anything about me at all." Aurora swallowed, "He doesn't know that I like to make daisy chains, or that I used to play in the garden with this rather charming raven."

Diaval chuckled. "Charming was I?" He grinned when she looked up at him. "Well, are you going to fill my head with pretty words to ease the breaking of my poor heart?"

"I'd rather your heart not break at all." Aurora murmured.

"How terrible," Diaval bowed his head, touching his forehead to hers. "Don't give me hope when there is none. A Princess cannot marry a common garden bird like myself. Look at me... my life is carved into my very skin. I play human, and sometimes I think as one... but I am not human."

"Have I ever spent a day of my life loving a human?" Aurora demanded. "I have loved Maleficent as though she were my mother, and my aunties were pixies... human means nothing to me."

Diaval sucked in a pained breath. "Aurora, please... don't break my heart any more than you must. You must marry Phillip..."

"No." Aurora stepped back from him, her arms folded against her chest. "I mustn't do a damn thing if I don't want to do it!" She stomped her foot again. "And you have no right to think you can tell me what I should or shouldn't do, or who I should love."

Diaval opened his mouth, only to freeze when Aurora stepped forward and took his face between her hands. He stared at her, watching her face draw nearer still. The touch of her lips against his was impossibly soft, and warm.

He melted into her kiss as he reached up and laced his fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head. "Aurora..." He breathed as the kiss broke.

"I love you." Aurora whispered. "I always have..."

"This is complicated..." Diaval closed his eyes for a moment, shivering as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, drawing herself in against his body.

"Complicated... but right."

"Yes."


End file.
